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Thursday, December 1, 2016

A Quick Start Guide to Eating the Keto Way

Guest Post by Steve Theunissen

Losing weight is confusing. Despite the billions of words that have been written on how to rid our bodies of fat, we find ourselves wallowing in an obesity epidemic. What’s needed is a straight forward, step by step guide based on real nutritional science that actually works.

Well, here it is.

In our last article, we discovered that the ketogenic diet is the real deal when it comes to sustained, healthy fat loss. In this article we’ll give you the practical steps you need to get started on keto.

Step One:Develop Your Mindset

The success of your keto diet will be totally dependent on the strength of your mental resolve. That’s why it’s important to get your mind in the game from the very outset.

Get yourself comfortable with the idea that you are going to completely remove sodas, refined sugar, starchy carbs, bread and junk food from your life. Go through a mourning process if you must, but make your mind over so that you are committed to letting go of those foods – they will no longer apply to you!

Step Two: Figure Out Your Daily Caloric Requirement

For the first few weeks of your transition to the ketogenic diet, you will need to count your calories. However, this is more to ensure that you stay within your macronutrient levels than total caloric content. The most important macronutrient number, of course, is your total daily net carbohydrates (carbs).

Carbs should make up just 2.5% of your daily caloric total. That means that, if you are taking in 2000 calories per day, your total carbs will be 50 calories.

Fats will comprise 80% of your caloric intake. On a 2000 calorie diet, that equates to 1,600 calories.

That leaves 17.5% to come from protein. On 2000 calories per day, you’d be taking in 350 calories from protein each day.

Measuring your food will require the following items:

oA food diary

oA set of food scales

oA set of measuring cups

You may also wish to invest in an App that will calculate your calories and macros for you. Here are a couple of options that will make your life so much easier:

In order to work out what your personal macro numbers are, you need to fist establish what your daily caloric requirements are. To do that you need to know about two things:

BMR = Basal Metabolic Rate is the number of calories that you need each day to stay alive at your current weight. If you were lying in bed all day, it would be the number of calories you needed to function. To work out your BMR use the following formula . . .

BMR = 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) - 5 x 22 + 5

TDEE = Total Daily Energy Expenditure is your BMR plus the extra calories that you use up throughout your daily activities. TDEE allocates calories in accordance with the following activity groupings:

Sedentary - desk job, very little exercise

Lightly Active - light exercise, 1-3 days per week

Moderately Active - moderate exercise, 3-5 days per week

Very Active - hard exercise, 6-7 days per week

Extremely Active - hard daily exercise plus a physical job

To calculate your TDEE, you multiply your BMR by a factor based upon activity grouping. The factors are:

·Sedentary - 1.2

·Lightly Active - 1.3

·Moderately Active - 1.5

·Very Active - 1.7

Let’s take a look at an example to see how we can work out total calories and macronutrient levels.

Steve is 32 years old and 90 kg. He is 180 cm tall. He trains 5 days per week on a heavy, compound exercise based program. He's a teacher who spends most of his day at the front of a classroom.

Steve belongs on the Moderate Activity Level of the TDEE activity scale. This gives him at TDEE factor of 1.5.

In order to maintain his current body weight, Steve needs to take in 2880 calories per day. But we want him to lose body fat not stay the same. Our goal is to drop one pound of fat through nutrition every single week. To do that we will set his daily caloric total 500 calories lower than his TDEE.

2880 - 500 = 2380

We now have Steve's total daily caloric total: 2380

Steve’s macronutrient levels would be: Fat = 1904 calories

Protein = 416 calories

There are 9 calories in 1 gram of fat.

There are 4 calories in 1 gram of protein and carbohydrate.

We can use these numbers to work out Steve’s macro intake in terms of grams of food.

Fat = 1904 / 9 = 212 grams

Protein = 416 / 4 = 104 grams

Carbs = 60 / 4 = 15 grams

Step 3: Write a Food List

Fats – You can eat any kind of fats you want. The best sources are . . .

üCoconut Oil

üOlive Oil

üAvocados

üNuts

üButter

üCheese

üCream

üCream Cheese

üAnimal Fats

üEggs

Proteins – Your protein intake should be moderate, in accordance with the macro guidelines you established in Step 2. Focus on the following protein sources . . .

üBeef

üChicken

üTurkey

üFish

Carbohydrates – you don’t have much leeway when it comes to carbs. Here are the carbs you should focus on . . .

üBroccoli

üAsparagus

üCauliflower

üOnions

üZucchini

Stay away from fruits because they contain the sugar fructose. If you choose to use sauces or dressings, make sure that they are sugar free.

You should take two tablespoons of salt with water each day in order to keep your electrolyte levels up. Rather than table salt you should use either Sea, Himalayan or Celtic salt. Check out our vitamins and supplements section to help supplement your keto diet.

Check out what a full day of kept eating looks like . . .

Step 4: Log Your Food

For the first month, it’s a good idea to keep a record of all the foods you are eating each day. This helps you to analyze your eating, making sure that you are on track to meet your macro goals. It also keeps you accountable for what you’re putting in your mouth.

You can use any one of dozens of fitness apps to log your food intake. One of the most popular is myfitnesspal.

Step 5: Check That You Are in Ketosis

You can purchase keto sticks from your local pharmacy. When you dip a stick into a cup of your urine, it will indicate whether and how deeply you are in the state of ketosis. You should do this at least once a week to ensure that you are where you want to be.

Conclusion

Follow through on our 5 step ketosis plan to ensure that get, and stay, in the ideal fat burning state safely. By doing so, you will be transforming your body into a fat churning machine, allowing you to reveal the lean and mean physique that’s been hiding underneath.